THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of an inordinate delay in executing smart road work in the capital, Smart City Thiruvananthapuram Limited (SCTL), a special purpose vehicle formed to implement the Smart City Mission Project, and the state government will submit an affidavit in the High Court on Monday seeking re-tender for the construction of 40 proposed smart roads which come under the city corporation.
The re-tendering will be for 17 roads where construction has been completed halfway and 23 roads where construction is yet to begin. The legal battle between the state government and the contractor, NAK Construction, is ongoing, with the latter filing a plea before the High Court in May this year. The contractor approached the court after the government refused to extend the company’s contract due to a delay in completing the work.
According to sources, the contractor has requested an additional 10 months from the government to complete the work, despite the fact that the government had given the company time to complete the 17 ongoing road works.
“Although the state government refused to extend the company’s deadline, it was given permission to finish ongoing work on a 17-km road. However, they requested another 10 months. The project is already behind schedule. So the company’s request is unacceptable. As a result, a legal battle has erupted, and the government has decided to re-tender the project. We will take further action once we receive approval from the High Court,” said an official close to the project.
Meanwhile, the work on 13 smart roads, under the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) of PWD, which was stalled for a while due to the monsoon, resumed two weeks ago. At present, HDD (horizontal directional drilling) work has started to lay the utilities in the ducts.